Sabine Bätzing-Lichtenthäler (born 13 February 1975) is a German

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

(SPD) who has been leading her party’s group in the State Parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate since 2021.Bätzing-Lichtenthäler neue SPD-Fraktionschefin in Rheinland-Pfalz
''

Südwestrundfunk Südwestrundfunk (SWR; ''Southwest Broadcasting'') is a regional public broadcasting corporation serving the southwest of Germany , specifically the federal states of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. The corporation has main offices ...

'', 7 May 2021. She is the first woman in this position.

Political career

Member of the German Bundestag, 2002–2014

Bätzing-Lichtenthäler was first elected to be a member of the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...

in the 2002 national elections, representing the constituency of

Neuwied Neuwied () is a town in the north of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, capital of the District of Neuwied. Neuwied lies on the east bank of the Rhine, 12 km northwest of Koblenz, on the railway from Frankfurt am Main to Cologne. Th ...

from 2002 to 2009 and being elected from the land list in 2009. From 2005 until 2009, she served as the German government's commissioner on drug-related issues in the Federal Ministry of Health.Claudia Ehrenstein (18 November 2009)
"Volkserzieherin" Sabine Bätzing tritt ab
''

Die Welt ''Die Welt'' ("The World") is a German national daily newspaper, published as a broadsheet by Axel Springer SE. ''Die Welt'' is the flagship newspaper of the Axel Springer publishing group. Its leading competitors are the ''Frankfurter Allg ...

''. Between 2009 and 2013, she was a member of the Finance Committee and the Sports Committee..In addition to her committee assignments, Bätzing-Lichtenthäler was a member of the German-French Parliamentary Friendship Group and of the German-Swiss Parliamentary Friendship Group. In the negotiations to form a ''

Grand Coalition A grand coalition is an arrangement in a multi-party parliamentary system in which the two largest political parties of opposing political ideologies unite in a coalition government. The term is most commonly used in countries where there are t ...

'' of

Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Oppo ...

's Christian Democrats ( CDU together with the Bavarian

CSU CSU may refer to: * Channel service unit, a Wide area network equivalent of a network interface card * Chari Aviation Services, Chad, by ICAO airline code * Christian Social Union (UK), an Anglican social gospel organisation * Christian Social Un ...

) and the SPD following the 2013 federal elections, Bätzing was part of the SPD delegation in the working group on financial policy and the national budget, led by

Wolfgang Schäuble Wolfgang Schäuble (; born 18 September 1942) is a German lawyer, politician and statesman whose political career has spanned for more than five decades. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), he is one of the longest-serving politi ...

and

Olaf Scholz Olaf Scholz (; born ) is a German politician who has served as the chancellor of Germany since 8 December 2021. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, Social Democratic Party (SPD), he previously served as Vice Chancellor of German ...

State Minister of Social Affairs, 2014–2021

From 2014 until 2021, Bätzing-Lichtenthäler served as State Minister of Social Affairs, Labour and Health in the government of

Minister-President A minister-president or minister president is the head of government in a number of European countries or subnational governments with a parliamentary or semi-presidential system of government where they preside over the council of ministers. It ...

Malu Dreyer Marie-Luise "Malu" Dreyer (born 6 February 1961) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has served as the 8th and current Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate since 13 January 2013. She is the first woman to hold th ...

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

. As one of her state's representatives at the Bundesrat, she served on the Committee on Labour, Integration and Social Policy; the Committee on Health; and the Committee on Family and Senior Citizen Affairs. Since the 2016 state elections, Bätzing-Lichtenthäler has been a member of the State Parliament of Rhineland-Palatinate.Nadine Buderath (21 August 2020)
Landtagswahl 2021: SPD nominiert Bätzing-Lichtenthäler und Gibhardt
''Siegener Zeitung''. In the coalition talks following the 2017 federal elections, Bätzing-Lichtenthäler was part of the working group on social affairs, led by

Karl-Josef Laumann Karl-Josef Laumann (born 11 July 1957) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Since 2017, he has been the State Minister of Labor, Health and Social Affairs of North Rhine-Westphalia, an office he previously held between ...

Barbara Stamm Barbara Stamm (; 29 October 1944 – 5 October 2022) was a German politician of the Christian Social Union in Bavaria. She joined the CSU in 1969, was a member of the town council of Würzburg from 1972, and a member of the Landtag of Bavaria fr ...

and

Andrea Nahles Andrea Maria Nahles (born 20 June 1970) is a former German politician who has been the director of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) since 2022. Nahles is best known for having served as leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) from April 2 ...

Other activities

ZDF ZDF (, short for Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen; ; "Second German Television") is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. It is run as an independent nonprofit institution, which was founded by all fe ...

, Member of the Television Board (2005-2014) *

German Red Cross The German Red Cross (german: Deutsches Rotes Kreuz ; DRK) is the national Red Cross Society in Germany. With 4 million members, it is the third largest Red Cross society in the world. The German Red Cross offers a wide range of services within ...

(DRK), Member * German United Services Trade Union (ver.di), Member

References

External links

* 1975 births Living people People from Altenkirchen Members of the Bundestag for Rhineland-Palatinate Female members of the Bundestag 21st-century German women politicians State ministers of Rhineland-Palatinate Members of the Bundestag 2013–2017 Members of the Bundestag 2009–2013 Members of the Bundestag 2005–2009 Members of the Bundestag 2002–2005 Members of the Bundestag for the Social Democratic Party of Germany {{Germany-SPD-politician-stub